Marnie (1964) Facts
| Director(s) | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Producer(s) | Alfred Hitchcock (uncredited) |
| Featured Cast | Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker, Martin Gabel, Milton Selzer |
| Total Facts | 27 |
Tippi Hedren has stated that many people have asked her what it was like to kiss the handsome Sean Connery in this film. Her reply was, "How sexy was it? It wasn't. It was simply technical. It was totally technical."
Bernard Herrmann's last score for a Hitchcock film.
Diane Baker has said that for the scene where she eavesdrops on Mark and Marnie talking outside of the house, Alfred Hitchcock came up to her, put his hands on her face, and physically manipulated it into having the expression he wanted for the scene.
Diane Baker was not allowed to read the script of the film before choosing whether or not to do it. She was only told that it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie named Marnie starring Tippi Hedren.
Louise Latham, who played Marnie's mother, was suggested by screenwriter Jay Presson Allen - the two had been classmates in a boarding school in Texas.
Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren had a major falling-out during the filming and there was a rumor that by the end he directed her through intermediaries. Although Hedren admits the she and Hitchcock's friendship ended during shooting, she denies the rumor that he didn't finish directing the film.
Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen were allowed to see scenes from Dr. No when considering Sean Connery for the role of Mark. They liked his charismatic performance so much that they decided to offer him the role even though the obviously Scottish actor did not really fit with their conception of Mark as an "American aristocrat."
Alfred Hitchcock first asked Evan Hunter, the screenwriter for The Birds, to adapt the novel after Tippi Hedren had signed on. However, Hunter strongly objected to the scene in the novel where Mark rapes Marnie, as he felt it was "unheroic" and that it would make women in the audience hate Mark. When he pressed Hitchcock about changing the scene, Hitchcock fired him. Jay Presson Allen, who took over as screenwriter, stated that opposition to the rape scene doomed Hunter since that scene was the main reason Hitchcock wanted to do the film. For her part, Allen said she never had any qualms about including the scene, and felt it was up to Sean Connery and his charisma to make the audience "forgive" Mark's actions.
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly to make her screen comeback in the title role, but the people of Monaco were not happy with the idea of their princess playing a compulsive thief.
Alfred Hitchcock was loathe to use a mechanical horse to film the shots of Marnie riding, but sent a crew member to inspect a mechanical horse owned by Disney that was supposed to be the best in existence. Walt Disney spotted the crew member on the Disney lot and personally offered to let Hitchcock use it, which he did.
Marnie opened at New York theaters as the top half of a double bill with Never Put It in Writing starring Pat Boone in the second position.
Joseph Stefano originally wrote a screen adaptation of the novel when Grace Kelly was supposed to star. Stefano's adaptation was much truer to the original book, and would have included two important characters from the novel that never made it into the final version of the film. One was a psychotherapist that Marnie was seeing at Mark's insistence, whose role ended up being merged into Mark's. The other was a man named Terry who was a co-worker of Mark's and also in love with Marnie. The part of Terry was massively reworked and ended up becoming Lil.
Actress Catherine Deneuve said in interviews she would have loved to have played Marnie.
Actress Naomi Watts dressed up as "Marnie" for a portrait that was published in the March 2008 issue of the magazine "Vanity Fair." (She said she was fascinated by Tippi Hedren when they both acted in the film I Heart Huckabees.
After Grace Kelly turned him down, Hitchcock considered and then rejected these actresses for the title role of "Marnie": Eva Marie Saint, Lee Remick, Vera Miles, Claire Griswold, and Susan Hampshire.
After rehearsing just a few scenes with co-star Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren asked Alfred Hitchcock, "Marnie is supposed to be frigid - have you seen him?" referring to the young Connery. Hitchcock's reply was reportedly, "Yes, my dear, it's called acting."
Despite the troubles which reportedly took place on set, Tippi Hedren has stated that this is her favorite movie which she has appeared in.
Filmed November 26 1963-March 19 1964.
Rutland has a phone conversation with a private investigator named Boyle; the film's production designer was Robert F. Boyle.
Screenwriter Jay Presson Allen thought that the expensive car Mark drove and the fancy clothes worn by his father were ridiculous and out of place, but Alfred Hitchcock insisted that they were necessary to convey the proper feeling of Mark being part of an "American aristocracy" to the audience.
Screenwriter Jay Presson Allen wrote in Mark's hobby of studying animal behavior because that was her hobby and tangentially fit with Mark's later inclination to psychoanalyze Marnie.
The 6 & 1/2 carat blue-white flawless diamond ring that Mark buys for Marnie cost $42,000, or approximately $285,000 in 2008 currency, when factored for inflation. In the week that Mark had returned with Marnie up until their marriage, he spends approximately $70,000, including the ring, or approximately $475,000 when factored for inflation.
The company created for copyright purposes for the film, "Geoffrey Stanley," was named after Hitchcock's pet dogs.
To film real horses riding without having to work outdoors, Alfred Hitchcock came up with the idea of running the horses on a gigantic treadmill. Crew members objected to the idea because it was considered highly unsafe and because they simply didn't think it would work. Still, Hitchcock wanted to at least try it, and when they did, it worked without a problem. Originally, a harness was attached to Tippi Hedren during these shots for safety reasons, but it was removed when it was found to impede shooting.
When Louise Latham came onto the set in her "young" makeup to film the film's climactic flashback, she looked so different that the cameraman began to ask around to find out who the new actress was.
When Alfred Hitchcock's discussion with Grace Kelly (to appear as the title character) became public, the residents of Monaco expressed their disapproval, and Kelly withdrew. In a further complication, since Kelly had not fulfilled her MGM contract when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, she could not appear in any film other than an MGM film until she fulfilled the terms of her MGM contract.
Alfred Hitchcock:
Five minutes into the film, in the hotel corridor as Marnie walks by.